Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Once again, the good people at www.oneprojectcloser.com, are having another giveaway! This time it's a Skil Cordless Cutter and I think it would be perfect for cutting the excess plastic around the edges of the storm windows I've been making. Plus they're adding a $25 gift card to the home improvement store of your choice. Can't beat that!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

... and still haven't been able to use the snowblower! Yesterday would have been perfect as we got a few inches but I didn't manage to get outside until after 9pm. And being the good neighbor that I am didn't want to make too much noise that late. The snow was so light and powdery that I could have actually used the leaf blower, but again too noisy.

Monday, January 19, 2009

What better way to top off an enjoyable dinner with friends than to come home to the sound of water spraying all over the half bath/laundry room into the kitchen!!!

It all started Saturday morning when I went to turn on the water to the bathroom sink, and nothing... Okay, I knew the pipes were most likely frozen and turned on the space heater to warm things up. The pipes are exposed in the bathroom so there was no need to make holes in the walls to get to them. Eventually the cold water started to work and the hot water started to drip a little at the connection under the sink but still not coming out of the faucet. I thought maybe it was still frozen somewhere in the sink so left the heater on.

So we leave for dinner and 5-6 hours later come home to the diasaster. That little drip under the sink just let go and was spraying water everywhere. Normally, my wife and I would probably lose it right about now but we kept it together and started to plan the clean up.

First order of business was to assess the damage. Bathroom floor had water and half the kitchen but good thing we had the foresight to leave all the dirty laundry on the floor to help soak up the water. Okay, so not TOO bad... Wring out the clothes and shopvac the water or shopvac then wring. Decided to vac first and went down to the basement to get the shopvac. And wouldn't you know it, the basement was flooded. So not TOO bad turned into terrible but good thing the leaking hot water heater last year gave me practice for cleaning a flooded basement. I thought about leaving the water and letting it freeze so the kids could iceskate on it but decided against that.

I eventually made it to bed at 5am and woke up the next morning with a headache. At least there was no CCD due to the holiday so I got to sleep a little longer.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Been a few weeks since I posted, things have just been crazy at home and at work. Actually the whole year has been crazy. Looking back at the year, there were a lot of things that I would have liked to have gotten done.

Our House - Forest Hall

Circa 1865, our house is a Second Empire Victorian. We are only the 3rd owners and purchased the house from a sweet 80 yr old women who had lived here for over 50 years. Much of the original interior details are still intact (just painted pistachio green!). My wife and I, together with our 3 young saplings, hope to live here for a very long time. We hope to do what we can to restore the house to it's original glory. Let the fun begin!